MENIFEE: Local mom's invention fights germs

Menifee mom Margaret Back's ah-ha moment came after she sent her
child to preschool and was subsequently sick on and off for seven
consecutive months.

"My daughter was bringing everything home from preschool," said
Back, 45. "Then I learned you are supposed to cough into your
sleeve. We were taught to cover our mouth with our hand."

The change in habit didn't come naturally at first, Back said,
so she thought up a way to make coughing and sneezing into a sleeve
a little more interesting.

She created a little worm character whose favorite food is
germs, and put the image on a disposable sleeve made of diaper-like
material that's worn on the arm.

The idea is kids like to "feed" their little worm coughs and
sneezes, thus "Germy Wormy" was born.

Back parlayed her idea into a
small business
,
which launched in September 2008. She's been selling the little
buggers ever since. A pack of 25 sells for $10.

"Most of my customers right now are actually schools, because
they find it's an incredible way to keep germs from spreading," she
said. "It teaches kids how to cough and sneeze into their sleeve,
and gives them somewhere else to cough other than all over your
house."

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention on its website
states that "if you don't have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your
upper sleeve or elbow, not your hands." It's a fact Back likes to
tout while discussing her product.

"Even President Obama, with the whole swine flu thing, was
talking about it," she said of the notion that coughing into a
sleeve ---- not hands ---- is the best course of action.

While sales could always be better, they've been pretty good,
Back said.

Recently, the product received a big boost from Anna's Linens
and Mom Invented, which named Germy Wormy one of the two top
mom-invented products of 2010. It's now sold in Anna's Linens
across the nation, as well as online.

There is even a DVD and poster that can be purchased with the
sleeve to teach kids about the product in a fun and encouraging
way, Back said.

While Back said the road to launching a business was difficult
and costly, now it's on "autopilot," and feedback remains positive,
even endearing at times.

"One grandmother said, 'I love your product, but my
granddaughter wanted me to give her pepper so she could sneeze and
feed her worm,'" Back said with a chuckle.

Brandon Arrington, 37, is a Burnet, Texas, resident who has
purchased the product on behalf of the Rotary Club of Burnet, which
distributes Germy Wormy to local schools as a community service
project for the club.

Arrington said Burnet is a small town northwest of Austin with
about 6,000 residents, many of whom are working parents who can't
afford to get sick.

"The kids and teachers were excited about it, and it seems to be
doing its job," he said. "It's a great product, and it's relatively
inexpensive."